Movement Meditation

The physical benefits of yoga are obvious: Your body becomes more flexible, your sleep more restful. Your circulation and concentration improve, and your overall sense of well-being increases tenfold.

But the problem with yoga is actually finding the time to do it. Yoga asanas (poses) cannot be squeezed into a 10-minute break between finishing a conference call and attending a cocktail party. To achieve optimum benefits, most yoga teachers recommend practicing three times a week for at least half an hour.

What can you do then to achieve yoga's benefits without sacrificing too much time?

For me, the breakthrough occurred when I separated yoga from the asanas. While hatha yoga and asanas are one aspect of yoga, they aren't its entirety. Yoga, as Patanjali envisioned it, includes service to others, study of ancient texts, and most important, self-control. With that in mind, I decided to incorporate what I considered the two most appealing aspects of yoga into my daily routine: movement and meditation.

Yogis, who have practiced the asanas for years, will tell you that yoga is meditation in movement. When you arch upward while doing the surya-namaskara, a series of stretches where the body arches back and forward; when you stand erect in a tada-asana, a pose where you stand upright, like a tree, on the left leg with the right leg placed on the left thigh; when you bend downward into an uttana-asana, where you touch your toes with your hands, what you are really doing is focusing the mind. That, along with breathing correctly, stretching your muscles, and balancing the organs, is what yoga is all about.

And it is possible to live this yoga every day. When I chop vegetables for dinner, I allow the tapping of the knife on the cutting board to carry me into a relaxed rhythm. I pay attention to my spine and stand as erect as I can. While the pasta water is boiling, I use my kitchen counters as boundaries and stretch a little. While stirring vegetables in my wok, I loosen my head and neck. In this way, the daily ritual of cooking gives me several moments to limber up my body.

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